In this July 1, 2011 file photo, former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn listens to proceedings in New York State Supreme court in New York. (AP Photo/Todd Heisler, Pool, File)

(Newser)
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A woman who claims to have had a nine-month affair with Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 1997 acknowledges that he can be sexually aggressive, but says that for her, "it was about passion, not about brutality." When she first heard of Nafissatou Diallo's allegations against Strauss-Kahn, the woman believed Diallo after reading "the detail that he was supposed to have taken his presumed victim from behind," she tells Swiss magazine L'illustré. Even so, the woman, identified only as Marie-Victorine M., says she is willing to testify—and that her testimony will likely aid in Strauss-Kahn's defense. “Yes, it’s incredible,” she says of Diallo's story, “but at the same time he is who he is.”

The prosecution contacted her, M. claims, and wanted to know if Strauss-Kahn had a violent side. "What is violence? A man who pushes you against a wall and who hugs you, is that violent?" she asks. "For me, this is not violent." The California legal consultant, who was 23 when she was involved with then-47-year-old Strauss-Kahn, says he never forced her to do anything. "Dominique is not the kind of man who needs to force himself," she says, although she also believes Strauss-Kahn and Diallo had "a forced relation. ... I don’t know if it was about a rape. This is a man who is physical, so it’s altogether possible that he grabbed this woman in a brusque or brutal manner.” DSK may have gone "a little too far—a lot too far," she says, but "I am convinced that in his heart he’s deeply persuaded that he’s not guilty.” The New York Post and the Daily Beast have more.